Problem
Lost and broken key replacements are some of the inconveniences within the living experience for many college students in dorms, apartments and shared housing situations. These problems typically rely on a human intermediary, such as a postal delivery person, mail sorter, landlord or desk assistant to resolve.
My Role
User Research, Digital Design
Solution
The Keyosk is a new physical and digital experience to reduce human error and improve worker and resident satisfaction. Our system would handle the process of checking out the key, removing the need for a human. The physical and digital experience would be seamlessly intertwined. By automating the key check out process, residents can move along their day knowing that they don’t have to rely on a service that may or may not be open (such as a residence hall main desk).
Initial Prototype
INTERVIEW PROCESS
The team interviewed a total of six (6) undergraduate students at Syracuse University (SU) via phone call; we had a combination of 4 female students and 2 male students within the age range of 18-22, all of whom have had experience living in SU dorms.
The team interviewed a total of six (6) undergraduate students at Syracuse University (SU) via phone call; we had a combination of 4 female students and 2 male students within the age range of 18-22, all of whom have had experience living in SU dorms.
INITIAL REQUIREMENTS
The fundamental premise of this product is to increase efficiency in checking out a spare key and eliminating the need for having a human intermediary. After an analysis of our results and focusing on common issues found in our user testing, we improved on the final design and functionality for our product. Taking into account recurring themes expressed by our participants, we enhanced our product to improve the user experience and accessibility.
Physical kiosk:
- The kiosk must be accessible.
- Braille (think: gas station selection buttons; yes/no, select, etc.)
- Audio functions (screen reading capabilities)
- Must be open 24 hrs/day
- Must be in a location where everyone can get to it (i.e. lobby or lounge)
Functions:
- Ability to scan SUIDs to prove identity and find what room you live in
- Ability for users to input reasoning for spare key checkout
- Ability for users to input how long they need to check out the key
- Ability to display key checkout policies
- Ability to charge user $50 if the key is checked out for more than 24 hours (bursar only)
- Ability to charge the user $1 per key checkout (cash only) (1st key checkout is free)
- Notification of charges to bursar account
- Ability for users to request a lock replacement
- Ability for users to return the key
Initial Physical Keyosk Design
Initial Keyosk Digital Interface Design
Heuristic Evaluations
We conducted a heuristic evaluation to assess the complete physical and digital design of the Keyosk. This evaluation evaluated the user control of the design, the visibility of system status, the linguistic clarity of instructions, the systems accommodations, and the consistency of design choices. We chose heuristic evaluations to find usability problems within the designs proposed.
We conducted the evaluations by walking through the Adobe XD prototype and comparing it to the physical system built for the Keyosk. Once we compared designs with a set of Jakob Nielsen’s accepted design principles, we identified issues and provided design recommendations. In addition, we assigned a severity level to help the group designers identify what was most important.
Final Prototype
Final Physical Keyosk Design
Final Keyosk Digital Interface Design
Conclusion
The Keyosk is a system proposed to increase efficiency and reduce human error in the key checkout process for college students living in dorms. We tackled the most common issues past and current dorm residents have expressed and developed a project that aims to resolve these issues as well as aims to be an innovative addition to each residence building.
